Grits and the art or process of making same.



UNITED STATES.

PATENT FFICE.

THOMAS T. GAFF, OF BARNSTABLE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND JOSEPH F. GENT,

OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

GRITS AND THE ART OR PROCESS OF MAKING SAME.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 687,221, dated November 26, 1901.

Application filed September 25 1901. Serial No. 76,550. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that We, THOMAS '1. GA-FF, of Barnst-able, in the county of Barnstable and State of Massachusetts, and JOSEPH F. GENT, of Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Grits and in the Art or Process of Making the Same, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention has to do with what are generally known as grits, under whichname may be included not only grits, but also hominy and flakes, all of them being obtained as milling products from maize or Indian corn.

It is our object to produce an article of this character which shall be weevil-proof, or, in other words, which will not be subject to the attacks of weevils, usually so destructive of grain. This result we have attained by subjectingthe grits to the action ofa bath of brine and then drying the same. This brine-treated product we find is weevil-proof, while at the same time its edible character remains unimpaired.

To carry out our invention, we manufacture the grits from maize or Indian corn in any usual or desired way, and we then treat the same with a salt solution, which can be applied in any suitable way-as, for example, in the shape of a bath, a suitable bath for this purpose being a saturated solution of common salt. The product is immersed in this bath, from which after a brief period it is removed by anyproper means, after which it is drained of surplus brine and is then (without any washing in fresh water) dried in suitable apparatus for that'purpose well known to those practiced in the art of corn-millin A convenient apparatus in which the grits can be treated with the brine is described in an application for Letters Patent in our joint names, Serial No. 61,679, filed May 24, 1901, and allowed August 24;, 1901, for a grainwashing apparatus comprising a brine-holding tank into which the grits are introduced and a'conveyer by which the same are lifted out from the bath and carried over to a chute, through which they may be directed to draining and drying appliances.

The grits do notremain in the bath long enough to be saturated. They receive rather what may be deemed a saline surface coating, which when it is afterward dried in situ furnishes complete protection against weevils.

Having described our invention and the manner in which the same is or may be carried into effect, what we claim herein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. As a new manufacture brine-treated grits substantially as hereinbefore setforth,

2. The process of obtaining weevil-proof grits which consists in first producing the grits from maize or Indian corn, then moistening the same with brine, and subsequently drying the same, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof We have hereunto set our hands to this specification.

THOMAS T. GAFF. JOSEPH F. GENT. Witnesses for Gaff:

EWELL A. DICK, E. K. LUNDY, Jr. Witnesses for Gent:

ARTHUR B. BELL, KARL T. GENT. 

